B007645 - GEOGRAPHY OF COMMUNICATION

Italian

Geography of communication; Discussion about the relationship between communication, economy, politics, and how it tends to differentiate itself in terms of culture and ecosystems; Analysis of the impact of the integration of communications networks on State and Markets since the industrial revolution, with particular attention to the last 30 years and the so-called ICT (information and telecommunication technologies).

R. Mainardi, “Comunicazione e società”, in R. Mainardi, Geografia della comunicazione, Nis, Roma, 1996, pp. 27-55; A. Mattelart, La comunicazione globale, Editori Riuniti, Roma, 2003, pp. 11-113; N. Rosenberg e D. Mowery, “La rivoluzione elettronica”, in N. Rosenberg e D. Mowery, Il secolo dell’innovazione. Breve storia della tecnologia americana nel XX secolo, Bocconi Editore, Milano, 2015, pp. 105-141; M. Castells, “La geografia di internet: luoghi connessi al network”, in M. Castells, Galassia Internet, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2013, pp. 195-230; “Il digital divide in una prospettiva globale”, pp. 231-255. The exam program includes these chapters and the PPT slides discussed in the lessons, available on the Unifi e-learning platform Moodle. In this Academic Year there is no difference between the program for attending and non-attending students.

Knowledge objectives: The course aims to provide knowledge about the role of communication in the economic and political processes, in particular on the impact of the communication technologies on the processes of State and markets building; Behaviour objectives: The course aims to stimulate the students to apply analytical logics in learning and evaluating the processes discussed in the lectures, and to cross them with the contents and the visions of the other courses of the CdS.

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Lectures with ppt support and audio-visual material

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Oral mode. Particularly the exam will verify: (1) information and knowledge on the topics of the exam schedule. (2) Good expressive modes, in particular ability to use a correct descriptive and interpretative language. (3) Ability to combine the theoretical models presented in the lessons with the processes and the empirical evidences of the current scenario. The final evaluation will be the overall result of these three skills.

The contents of the lectures are indicatively as follows: (1) Anthropic and physical factors in human, political and economic geography. (2) Relations between anthropic-physical factors and the communication processes: technologies and networks. (3) The relationship between communication and the state and markets building processes: its geographical diversification. (4-8) The three great discontinuities in communication technologies: A bird-eye view; Transition from orality to literacy (5000BP and following millennia); Gutenberg and the serial printing (1455 and following centuries); Electric telegraph and the submarine cables (1837, 1851 and following decades); (9) Analysis of communication technologies and material-nonmaterial networks in the Industrial Era (XIX and XX centuries). (10) The technological package of the second half of 19th century and the “cultural industry”. (11) The XX century technologies, the mass production and the mass communications. (12) The changing relation between state and communication. (13) The changing relation between market and communication. (14) The computer science and the current techno-economic paradigm of microelectronics. (15) Internet (1993 and following years). (16) The Internet economic and political Geography. (17) The digital divide. (18) Internet trends and outlook.